_furbish

Dinner party - mini thanksgiving

Tue, 25 Oct 2005 01:53:33 GMT

So I recently had a dinner party and the 'theme' was mini-thanksgiving. I decided on this after a special request for carrot cake was made - I just made the menu working back from dessert. Anyway, I made turkey cutlets with a cranberry/tangerine sauce, wild rice stuffing with hazelnuts and dried cranberres, sweet potato casserole, a mixed green salad with apple cider vinaigrette, granny smith apples and blue cheese, and finally a made-from-scratch, first ever try at carrot cake.

Everything came out wonderfully except the rice didn't seem quite done. It cooked for an hour on the stove and another 40 min in the oven (so maybe it was just 'crisp'), but it tasted ok. Everything else, especially the cake was great. I was especially proud of the cake. And I'm mad that I forgot to take a picture.

I am about to really get into baking. It really appeals to my wanting-to-follow-a-recipe nature. The idea of weighing ingredients is exciting. I bought a digital scale and I can't wait to use it! I'm getting a stand mixer. AH! I can't wait.

Magazines

Wed, 19 Oct 2005 22:35:55 GMT

Just wanted to make a few notes from my free trial offer of Cook's Illustrated (Nov-Dec 05). I think I might like to get a subscription because I really enjoyed the tips and taste tests, but I think that this is the kind of magazine you definitely grow out of. I might also check ebay for back issue lots.

Anyway,

Learned butter is packaged different in CA (shorter and 'stubbier'), so that's neat. Apparently the sticks of butter I'm used to are 'Elgin-style', as in Illinois.

A good tip for too-dry pie dough - fill a spray bottle with ice cold water and use that.

Progresso brand canned whole tomatoes won a tasting.

When checking for doneness of baked sweet potatoes, you should be able to squeeze with tongs all the way to the center without resistance. If still not sure, cut in half lengthwise and you should not see 'whitish marbling'.

Reminder: Check grocery store for whole wheat pasta brands and compare to taste test.

Re chocolate (remember so you can get this when in G'ville because local grocery stores suck in the chocolate dept): Scharffen Berger-unsweet, Droste-dutch cocoa, Guittard-white, Ghiradelli-bittersweet (!), guittard or nestle(!) - chips.

Linzertorte recipe looks yummy, but don't listen to them about the sweet potato casserole. :)

Nice pictures about potato doneness.

I'm finally getting a stand mixer and they tell me it sucks for kneading dough. thanks assholes.

They liked Franks Hot Sauce.

Pretty good for one issue. I should definitely try a subscription.

Sunday dinner

Mon, 10 Oct 2005 02:59:27 GMT

A couple of notes on some first-time recipes I tried today. . .

Buttermilk Pie
I made this sweet pie crust. I blind baked it covered with foil and weighted down with some dried beans, but didn't poke holes in the crust. Then I removed the foil and beans and cooked a bit more. There were some bubbles. Should still poke holes in crust even though doing the bean-thing.
The pie was from this recipe. Cooked it for 35 minutes, and it came out golden and a bit loose. Cut into it after cooling and it's a bit runny inside. Cook a bit more next time. (It was very yummy, despite the not perfect texture)

Fried chicken
For someone who's from the south, it took me an unbelievable amount of time to make fried chicken. I did it the Alton Brown way (of course!) and it turned out wonderfully. The spices were right on, the chicken was cooked through. Very nice. For next time, though, remember that it will take more shortening than you think, and that it takes a long time to melt.

Biscuits
Again, Alton Brown's recipe. Turned out great, I used a slightly smaller than 2" biscuit cutter, like he said, and that was just too darn small. Will use the next biggest size next time.

Mashed potatoes.
standard.

Gravy.
First time making gravy too. It tasted ok, but next time give the flour more time to brown - needs to be darker.

All in all, a very succesful dinner, and quite the learning experience. Left quite a mess though.

Sat, 08 Oct 2005 04:14:04 GMT

Made the butterfly cupcakes out of Elinor Klivan's cupcakes!.

Lemon poppy seed cupcakes with tops cut off and reassembled on top to make the wings. Lemon whipped cream and a lemon curd(ish) body. They were very yummy. And cute.

i love alton brown part 2

Wed, 05 Oct 2005 03:41:29 GMT

I've had AB's I'm Just Here for the Food for awhile now, but as it's not a traditional cookbook filled with recipes, I've not really given it any attention. Well I got it down tonight and by the 8th page I was so excited I had to put it down and make sure that his baking book was on my amazon wishlist! I don't know why I am seeing this as so life changing (the whole less-reliant on recipes, understanding the science behind the technique thing), being that I watch is show all the time, but I was really struck by his introduction and the mission statement of the book. So, yeah, I'm going to go read some more.

Wed, 05 Oct 2005 00:22:21 GMT

Frames are too expensive and I have a lot of photos. Solution - Wires on eyehooks - clips from Ikea. Pictures mine.

Tue, 04 Oct 2005 15:20:13 GMT

My cooking more and better seems to have rubbed off on the boy. Sunday morning he announces that he wants to make a quiche, and today he called me at work to tell me that he had came home early from work because he wasn't feeling so hot, but that he wanted to make a pork roast with potatoes and carrots for dinner tonight.

Tue, 04 Oct 2005 00:22:20 GMT

One of my favorite easy and cheap recipes is a very simple one (and I can't remember where I found it - perhaps allrecipes.com?) Saute steamed broccoli with garlic, red pepper flakes and a decent amount of olive oil. Toss with penne pasta and add parmesan cheese. Very yummy.

Sat, 01 Oct 2005 21:47:20 GMT

This past week has not been a banner week for good cooking. It's more like cheap cooking, and although I know you can make excellent food cheaply, nothing I've made this week has been something I've felt like posting about. Except I did make chocolate chip cookies today, with a recipe from the back of the bag of Hershey's chips. The cookies are super-sweet (eh) and chewy (good), but I'll probably try another recipe next time I make them.

In other news, I guess because I asked Cooks Illustrated to send me a free introductory copy of their magazine, I got a free introductory copy to a mag I've never heard of before - Cuisine at Home. A smallish magazine because they have no ads (!), and one that I really enjoyed looking through. I even plan to make the chicken piccata recipe once I get paid again and quality dinners can once again commence. I also liked their technique pages, and they also had an article on salt which was nice, but would have been nicer if I hadn't read that one online slate article about the salt taste tests. Anyway, I will compare this with the Cook's Illustrated magazine and choose one to subscribe too.

Baking soda v baking powder

Mon, 26 Sep 2005 23:44:44 GMT

Alton Brown taught me something (else) today. Baking powder contains cream of tartar (an acid, which by the way I found out earlier in the week was a left-over from the wine-making process) and baking soda (alkaline). The two balance each other out to produce just the right amount of gas to get things like, in this case, muffins to rise. In some recipes you need to add more baking soda to balance out an added acid such as buttermilk or chocolate. Neat, huh?

And I will remember this better because I'm typing it here. See, this is handy already!

a rededication

Mon, 26 Sep 2005 23:30:54 GMT

I'm rededicating this place to use as my cooking/baking journal. I've been cooking a lot lately, and I wanted a place to keep track of what I'm making, how I liked it, what I want to do better, and some pics of everything. Also links and other cooking-related notes.

Some things to know about my cooking style - I'm a recipe follower as opposed to a recipe maker. This is a function of both my anal retentiveness and my new-ness to the science of cooking. This may or may not change as I get better and learn more.

I'm currently going through a cupcake phase (yes, i'm part of that bandwagon).

What this is. . .

Wed, 11 May 2005 00:58:12 GMT

This is a companion blog of my other site - Furbish. I've also started a syndication of that site under the username furbish_lj. For now, I'm using this site to keep up with neat lj communities, but who knows what will happen in the future.